Subtle Signs That May Mark You an Airport Security Risk

The Pros and Cons of TSA's Behavior-Detection Program

Ever feel like you're being watched at an airport? You are, and it's not just the surveillance cameras. Scott McCartney explains the program that has thousands of TSA agents roaming airports with an eye for suspicious behavior. Photo: AP.

Ever feel like you're being watched at an airport? You are, and it isn't just the ubiquitous surveillance cameras.

The Transportation Security Administration has about 3,000 officers trained to detect behavioral clues of "mal-intent." They eye travelers at checkpoints and throughout the airport for signs of above-normal stress, fear and deception, and sometimes engage in casual conversation to measure reactions. After the fatal shooting of a TSA officer in Los Angeles in November, the Behavior Detection Officers, or BDOs, have increased roaming in public areas of airports.

The Government Accountability Office, the auditing arm of Congress, concluded in a recent report there is no credible evidence that TSA's behavior-detection program, which costs about $200 million a year, is effective. Scientific studies in general show human ability to identify deceptive behavior without conversation is at best only slightly better than 50-50 chance, the November report said. GAO urged Congress to cut back funding.

TSA says the program is a vital part of a multilayered regimen, crucial to the agency's effort to get smarter about risk-based, targeted security.

TSA Administrator John Pistole, a former FBI official, likens the BDOs in 176 U.S. airports to cops on a beat. He notes that law enforcement and military have been using behavior-detection techniques for generations. The 94 different indicators that BDOs hunt for, such as fidgeting, excessive sweating and wearing heavy clothes in a warm climate, were developed largely from FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration criteria. And instead of reacting to the latest threat—whether it be box cutters or liquid explosives or bombs in underwear—the BDOs are proactive in looking for bad people regardless of weapon.

ENLARGE

Wesley Bedrosian

"A lot of it is common sense," Mr. Pistole said in an interview last month in Houston. Effectiveness can be seen in arrests, he said. "We've found hundreds of people who had false IDs, who had drugs or cash or warrants or were in this country illegally. They demonstrated suspicious behavior and any one of them could have been a terrorist."

BDOs, usually in uniform, work in pairs to scan travelers from different angles and use a point system to score suspicious behavior. It takes a cluster of indications to trigger a referral, which means the passenger is singled out for enhanced screening at checkpoints, including a pat-down and search of personal property. During the screening, which takes 13 minutes on average, BDOs check travel documents and engage the passenger in voluntary conversation. If something suspicious is found or the traveler exhibits more suspicious behavior, law enforcement is called.

Last year, TSA referred more than 2,100 passengers singled out by BDOs to local law enforcement, resulting in 181 arrests, plus an additional 79 investigations and 30 other boarding denials.

In addition to patrolling airport terminals, uniformed BDOs "walk the line," in TSA-speak. One BDO watches passenger reactions while a partner walks down the checkpoint line, engaging passengers in chitchat or commenting on a bag or clothing. "Engagement may escalate someone with mal-intent," said a TSA official in Washington, D.C.

TSA officials say BDOs don't just look for nervousness or anxiety. They say it is a misconception that just being anxious can land you in extra screening. "Most people are agitated or a little bit in a rush," said the TSA official. "We're not looking for [the typical harried person] who's often late for the plane and can't find his or her ID."

The program, which started at airports in 2007, has been criticized for snaring people who pose no threat to aviation. Most arrests are for fake IDs and drug possession.

TSA has also faced complaints of racial profiling, or simply being too subjective with its referrals. Anecdotal evidence in the GAO report seemed to back this up. The GAO said 21 of the 25 BDOs it interviewed said some behavioral indicators are subjective. Five of the 25 said they believed some profiling was occurring.

The American Civil Liberties Union accused TSA BDOs of racial profiling at Boston's Logan Airport after eight TSA officers went to ACLU with concerns that colleagues were trying to boost BDO arrest numbers by seeking out minorities who might be more likely to have immigration issues or arrest warrants. That sparked an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general. A synopsis of the inspector general's report made public in September found no indication BDOs were targeting minorities to meet quotas. The ACLU in a Boston Globe report said the investigation was inadequate, noting that TSA doesn't record information about the race of people referred for enhanced screening.

Nationwide, the GAO said BDOs averaged 1.6 referrals over 160 hours worked. But that rate varied significantly between airports, GAO found, ranging from 0 to 26 referrals per 160 hours. "Subjectivity and variation raise questions about continued use of behavioral indicators," GAO said.

TSA says it prohibits racial profiling and has enhanced its training and oversight of BDOs.

An outside firm is currently evaluating the 94 different indicators of suspicious behavior that BDOs use, trying to standardize a more-manageable list with less subjectivity. TSA says it started collecting new data about BDO referrals, and is studying whether it can begin tracking race and national origin of passengers referred for enhanced screening.

BDOs get five days of classroom training and two days of on-the-job training. They must pass a written test every year and be observed by a manager annually to stay certified. There is also recurrent training, TSA says.

The TSA is using plain clothes officers to conduct roaming checks in terminals. The TSA officer may not look like an official at all. They may be dressed as a passenger and if they engage you they may ask that you take a photograph of them with their phone.

"Scientific studies in general show human ability to identify deceptive behavior without conversation is at best only slightly better than 50-50 chance, the November report said. GAO urged Congress to cut back funding.

TSA says the program is a vital part of a multilayered regimen, crucial to the agency's effort to get smarter about risk-based, targeted security. "

A lesson in the malignancy of bureaucracies. Science & data be d$mned, we need more staffing & resources!

"...colleagues were trying to boost BDO arrest numbers by seeking out minorities who might be more likely to have immigration issues or arrest warrants...", well were they illegal or doing something illegal? Then they were stopped for the right reasons weren't they?

Unlike many people who are afraid of flying, I am afraid of airport security. Not really afraid, just extremely irritated at times. I suspect I was pulled aside, searched and questioned once due to my obvious irritation and stress of going through the procedure. My wife has told me I need to cool it and relax, I just follow her cues now and everything goes fine. Be friendly to the TSA people, they are just doing their jobs. One of them allowed me to take my favorite pocketknife back to my car before boarding rather than confiscating it. I had lost the knife, it is my favorite knife and I thanked the man for being so nice about it.

If you ask me some stupid questions or question you really have no business asking, I will tell you shove off.It doesnt matter if you are at an airport or not. If you are rude to me, I will be rude back to you!

Anecdotal evidence is hardly facts. If you fly enough you will get a extra check.

I am surprised people still think the next terrorist will be Arab or middle eastern. More likely to be the blond man,woman with 2 kids. While your checking the middle eastern the other don't get a second look and ....

I have to chuckle with this. This past November I was getting ready to return home from Nashville, Tenn and decided since there was nothing more we could at the meeting, leave early for the airport (over 3 hours). We figure we get something to eat in the airport after clearing security. We got in line which appeared to be no big deal but after 20 minutes we moved maybe 2 spaces ahead. The problem was only one security line working while 12 or so TSA agents talked among themselves. After 2 hours in line, my anxiety level was at an all time high. Now, you don't think this would raise suspicions? Gawd what a stupid system we have created.

As has been said, you take a look at the TSA agents at most airports -- with their big bellies, armpit stains on their untucked shirts, low-class vocal cadence -- and you really wonder whether the TSA is a jobs program or a security program. And now these geniuses, who would probably fail a 4th grade spelling test, are behavioral analysis experts? Yes, your tax dollars at work.

TSA says the program is a vital part of a multilayered regimen, crucial to the agency's effort to get smarter about risk-based, targeted security."

Ok, this for me is heresy, but I have to defend the TSA. They are the ones tasked with a difficult, in my mind, impossible mission. So, anti-Democrat as it may sound, they know better than the GAO or CBO, what they need to do to accomplish that mission.

Now if Barack Hussein Obama would simply go help the TSA, since he knows better than anyone else anything and everything that is good for them, it would be different, but without his Highness?

I am a small blond woman and my last name is Jones. I was sent for extra screening all the time in my 20s and 30s, when I traveled a lot. I'm an epidemiologist and physician, and treating a security officer in the ER, he told me what the typical screening rates were. I calculated my expected v observed rate of screening and with over 20 flights (40 check ins) I had a p value of <0.01. (don't remember how many times exactly, but more than 10) I was being "targeted." Not sure why, since I wasn't making last minute one way trips, and I'm pretty relaxed and friendly in general. Here's what's odd. I married a man with a last name of obviously middle eastern descent. The screening immediately ceased. He's never been screened, and his best guess was that middle eastern names ARE targeted, but I look pretty innocent (as does he- he was born and raised in Texas), and so no one wants to "waste" their possible quota of targeting middle eastern names on obvious white Americans.

"We've found hundreds of people who had false IDs, who had drugs or cash or warrants or were in this country illegally. They demonstrated suspicious behavior and any one of them could have been a terrorist."

Could have been a terrorist? Could have weapons of mass destruction? Of course, neither was found.

Flying out of Gulfport, MS last year on a very early flight, I got behind what appeared to be a Somali woman and her 6 children (aged 1 to probably 10/11). She was fully covered except for her face which contained a gold tooth filled grill. I was somewhat unhappy to be behind them since I figured they'd get a thorough going over. To my surprise, they were passed right through with only the most cursory inspection while I was subjected to a full time consumming search. I'm 64 and sometimes use a cane to get around. The TSA agent even took off the rubber cap from the cane's bottom to see if something was inside it. It's a solid wood cane. Just amazing, I figured that the TSA might have been on the lookout for an old white guy with a cane.

I'm glad we have these programs, but I question whether objective data and experiments have created the rules which are applied in the field. More likely it's "expert opinion." That and about 3 bucks will get you a tall nonfat latte at Starbucks.

Stupid-simple rules probably work best, but people will probably scream profiling. Oh well...

I would like to know if a citizens group of similarly trained personnel can be present at Congressional hearings to detect evasion and outright lying by those being questioned, as well as those on the Congressional committee itself, especially when the issue at hand is the pervasive fraud and criminal behavior in the financial industry. There's been much more damage done to this country by financial industry criminals than by all the "terrorists" combined.

"The Transportation Security Administration has about 3,000 officers trained to detect behavioral clues of "mal-intent." "Trained?" I can't imagine what kind of charlatan consultants sold TSA on the notion that their mostly minimum wage, low skilled workforce can somehow become concourse Clouceaus. Sounds like more government make-work.

"Last year, TSA referred more than 2,100 passengers singled out by BDOs to local law enforcement, resulting in 181 arrests, plus an additional 79 investigations and 30 other boarding denials... Most arrests are for fake IDs and drug possession."

200 million dollars for 181 arrests? That is $1,104,972 per arrest, all in the name of fighting terrorism, and not one terrorist among them. Lord, keep us safe from the terror-mongers or they'll bankrupt us all!

Mark H, If the TSA has an impossible mission, any $ wasted trying to do the impossible are a waste of precious tax $ firked out of hard working Americans. End the TSA NOW, and let taxpayers use the $ and TIME saved to fight terrorism in rational manners. STOP THE KABUKI THEATER at our airports. Deport the illegal aliens, and let the former TSAer return to walking the Malls of America with their rubber guns...

Not wanting to do a Tom Clancy and give the Enemies of the USA a new angle of attack I won't point out all the absurdities of current Homeland & TSA policies and deployment in a media spread Worldwide to friend and Foe alike. Think locked Gates with no fences in between for Miles and Miles........

Any TSAer with a +80 I.Q. has to realise that unless they can come up with a real purpose that can be performed at the Airports by a largely subnormal workforce, Their days of standing around aimlessly harassing innocent travelers while receiving federal union wages & benefits are numbered

Apparently, they stand for it very happily for the most part. Important people fly in private jets and are therefore divorced from the reality of the airport experience. A lot of the rest of us think this is a great thing and necessary to somehow protect us from the terrorist hoards. I think it's all utter nonsense, unconstitutional, and a waste of my tax dollars.

This puts me in mind of the first time I flew after the mess in NYC. I got "selected" for extra screening as I was waiting for my flight. I figure it was because I looked like the least happy person in the waiting area. Anyway, they went through my carry on with a fine tooth comb and then dumped the contents of my purse. The screener went through the slots of my wallet. I'm a pale white red headed female and was in my 40's at the time. If you can give me a valid explanation for any of this more power to you. I can't.

Peter, touché I wasn't so much trying to defend the TSA as I was trying to point out that bean counters shouldn't be second guessing requirements. Yes, they should steer the discussion to more efficient methods, but they should have no say in the whether the requirement is real or perceived.

And I can't argue with a single thing you said about the TSA, in fact I can add some.

I remember traveling a few months after 9/11 and while in St Louis the 3 people selected for review were 2 Middle east llooking men and an octogenerian female. Poor lady begged not to have to take off her shoes due to leg swelling. Her shoes came off and they could not get them back on due to her swollen legs. They ended up wheeling her all around and carrying her onto plane.

I don't get to upset on this micro tel. Its just BS to make you think twice about trying something. if you fly enough you will eventully gets a secondary look over.

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.